First physician to setup a sleep medicine clinic in Juneau Alaska.

Post navigation

Treating Sleep Apnea with CPAP

An Alaska sleep apnea specialist, Dr. John Krehlik maintains offices in Anchorage, Wasilla, and Juneau. He became the first general internist in the state to receive board certification in sleep medicine. In his treatment of sleep apnea, Dr. John Krehlik employs the latest machines for CPAP.

Symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea include snoring and pauses in breathing while sleeping at night and tiredness, headaches, sleepiness, and high blood pressure during the day. Obesity can also be connected to sleep apnea, as can medical conditions such as depression, heart disease, hypertension, and strokes.

Once diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, a patient has a variety of different treatment options. One of these options, CPAP, which stands for continuous positive airway pressure, treats those with moderate to severe sleep apnea. It remains the most popular treatment.

The patient undergoing CPAP treatment sleeps with a mask placed over the nose and/or the mouth. This mask provides air at a slightly higher pressure than the surrounding air, thereby keeping open the airway passages, which might otherwise close.